Book 1
Chapter Seven
Sitting with Hank and Raven, Belle stayed with the group as their show-and-tell continued.
"My, uh, stage name is Angel," she said cheekily as she started taking off her jacket. Sean let out a wolf whistle as the piece of clothing came off and she turned to expose her back. "It kind of fits," she teases as the tattoos on her back came to life and became iridescent dragonfly-like wings. Raven shoved herself to the edge of her seat.
"You can fly?!" she gawked, Belle feeling a grin pulling at the corner of her lips.
"Uh huh," she responded, looking over her shoulder at them. "Oh and uh..." She turned to face the broken window and leaned forward slightly before launching projectile spit towards the statue in the quad. Her spit shot out like a ball of acidic fire and landed on the statues head, frying the stop of it. Everyone laughed as little puffs of smoke swirled over it. As she went to put her jacket on, she nodded in Hank's direction. "What's your name?" Not giving Hank a chance to answer, Alex took a swig from his beer and responded in his place.
"How about Big Foot?" Belle, who was closest to him, shoved his leg slightly to tell him to knock it off. However, Raven leaned over to face him.
"Well you know what they say about guys with big feet and uh..." she said as she scrunched her nose and picked up her drink. "Yours are kind of small." She took a nonchalant sip as the room broke out in laughter and Alex raised his hands in surrender. Belle noticed the look Raven and Hank were exchanging and nudged Raven to give her a subtle wink.
"Okay now," Darwin said, calming down the giggles. "Alex, what is your gift? What can you do?" Putting his beer down, Alex started shifting nervously and looking at the floor to avoid eye contact.
"It's not..." Raising his eyes up, he looked around briefly. "I just can't do it. I can't do it in here." There was a pause of silence.
"...can you do it out there?" Darwin asked as he pointed in the direction of the flower and statue. And with that suggestion, the group got rowdy and encouraged/pressured him into getting out of his chair.
"Get down when I tell you, he mumbled as he passed them and hopped over the glass. The group followed and stayed in the corner behind the concrete, peering over at him. Glaring at them, he told them to get back. They responded by doing so for a moment before returning to their peering. "Get back!" he yelled at them, but none of them bothered to move from their spots. Muttering to himself, he formed blazing red rings that started to spin around his body. The first one he tossed narrowly missed the group, Hank pulling Belle back as Darwin pulled Angel and Raven back a bit too. The second ring flew over the statues head before the third one came and sliced it diagonally, severing its entire top half. The entire group broke out into applause, even Belle in awe of Alex's powers.
Afterward, the group decided to on some music and started partying. Belle took her seat back at the bar with her book while the girls danced and the boys hit Darwin with different items to see who could do more damage against his mutation. Hank ended up hanging upside down and the boys ended up breaking off one of the table legs. Hearing their laughter made Belle stall while reading her book and remember her kindergarteners. A smile graced her lips as she remembered the first day of school when she gave all of her students little pots and asked them to imagine their flowers growing. While their eyes were closed, she had all of the sprouts grow into fully grown flowers and told them that she would help them grow to be just like their flowers. They went crazy over the 'magic trick,' which was her favorite thing to do on the first day of classes. Just then, her thoughts were broken when Charles, Erik, and Moira appeared and the latter was furious.
"What the hell? What are you doing?!" she commanded in a stern voice. Suddenly, the music was turned off and everyone was attentive and on their feet, even Belle in the back. "Who destroyed the statue? And where did that giant flower come from?" Immediately, Sean scratched the back of his head.
"It was Alex," he said, Alex shooting him a 'dude, what the hell' look. Belle then walked forward quickly.
"Not the flower. I… the flower was my fault." Charles looked at Belle, disappointed.
"Belle-" he started saying.
"No, Demeter," Raven interrupted. "We have to call her Demeter. And it's not Alex, it's Havok. That's his name now." They didn't look impressed, but she continued. "And we were thinking," she paused to point at Charles, "you should be Professor X," and she paused to point at Erik, "and you should be Magneto." Erik looked at Charles.
"Exceptional," he said dryly before walking away. Moira stormed off in the opposite direction. Charles stood in front of them, all of their smiles gone.
"I expect more from you," he whispered. He began to walk away, but Belle ran after him, catching him farther down the hallway.
"Charles." He stopped to look back at her. When she caught up to him, she crossed her arms awkwardly. "Don't be so hard on them. They're young-"
"None of you are children, Belle. You need to be responsible with the gifts you've been given and this...what I saw tonight was the opposite of that." He tried to walk away, but Belle grabbed onto his arm gently.
"Then blame me for what happened. I'm used to watching over kids. I should have been the voice of reason. I should have watched them better. But don't do that to them." He turned back to her, hands in his pocket and a question on his face.
"Do what?" She let out a dry chuckle and extended her arm in the direction of the group.
"Make them feel like failures. Make them feel unwanted." Charles opened his mouth to say something, but Belle put a hand on his chest to stop him. "They've lived with those feelings their whole lives. They don't need it from you too…" His gaze softened and he sighed, placing one of his hands on the one that was against him.
"...they were being irresponsible with their powers-"
"They were embracing their powers. You weren't here to see it, but they introduced themselves and bared their abilities, abilities that have probably been suppressed their entire lives. Angel got to spread her wings and fly a bit. Hank took his shoes off finally and got to embrace his mutation in his feet. Alex...he has plasma rings! I mean, that's insane!" she laughed joyfully, a small smile tugging at his lips as she talked about the others. "...I got to use my powers past the extent of cool science experiments and magic tricks for the first time in years. And no one wrote it off as either of those...and I wasn't afraid of getting caught or being judged. When you brought us here, we finally felt like we had somewhere to go. You gave us approval, confidence, hope...don't take that away from us," she whispered. He stared down at her and saw a lone tear caressing her cheek. His finger brushed it away gently, his other hand still holding her hand to his chest while her other one fell to her side. Looking over her face for a moment, he softened.
"I'm sorry, love. You're right," he whispered. She nodded and leaned into his touch, her eyes closed for a moment. They reopened and stared in Charles's. The moment was intimate and both of them were leaning towards each other before Belle blinked and froze. Realizing what she was doing, she backed away awkwardly with a nervous smile."I'm gonna...go back. You know, talk to them," she whispered shakily. He nodded and watched her leave, still planted in his spot as her hand slipped away from under his. When she entered the lounge, she found the lights turned off and the room empty. Sighing, she made her way back to the bar and picked up her book before walking out again; she paused at the doorway and looked down the hall to see Charles still in his place. She bit her lip before walking in his direction again and stopping in front of him. They simply stared at one another for a few moments before Charles moved his hand to her cheek and got close to kiss her on the forehead. The way his lips brushed her forehead made Belle hold her breathe and tighten the grip on the book she had pressed against her chest. He pulled away and stared into her eyes with a small smile on his lips before whispering goodnight and walking off.
Alone in the hall, Belle tried to sort her emotions as they pulsed through her. Her mind started to relish the memory of his lips on her forehead and almost imagined the kiss going deep into the folds of her mind. Realizing what she was doing, though, she snapped out of her thought process and marched back to her room, cheeks ablaze. She changed back into her pajamas and braided her dark curly hair, keeping the tail loose. As she went to step away from her bed and turn off the light, she noticed Charles's bathrobe folded on the bed. Hesitantly, Belle picked it up and slowly pulled her arms through, reveling in the warmth it gave her. She couldn't explain how the article of clothing was capable of providing her so much comfort despite sitting in a cold room for hours. Blocking off any further thoughts, Belle turned off the lights and got into bed where she laid in utter discomfort. She still couldn't sleep on her own. Charles? Can you hear me? she called mentally, holding her breath. She was desperate for sleep and he always seemed to know what to do. Belle? Is everything okay? he responded softly. A small smile came across her face as she heard his warm voice in her head. I can't seem to sleep again. He let a warm chuckle ring in her mind. I'll be right there. And so she waited patiently, a slight smile on her lips. She didn't notice that the vines on the wall were beginning to sprout small blooming daisies. Grazing his knuckles against the door, Charles gave a soft knock before he opened the door and saw Belle look over at him with a small smile. He sat down next to her on the bed and chuckled slightly.
"Is this going to be our thing? I lull you to sleep every night?" She blushed as he stroked the side of her face.
"Think of yourself as a nightlight. Don't let it go to your head, professor," she whispered back playfully. He wrinkled his nose slightly.
"Hearing you call me that is rather strange. I don't consider you my pupil." She sat up slightly in her bed and leaned toward him.
"Except you're training me, are you not? Doesn't that make me your pupil?" she challenged. He let out a chuckle and watched her lean against her elbows.
"Under normal circumstances, yes. However," he said, flashing her a flirtatious smile. "I don't believe these circumstances are normal, starting with the fact that you are more powerful than I am. I like to think we're equal...team members...partners, even." Belle stared at him in shock as his eyes shined with admiration. A moment passed before he cleared his throat and broke the eye contact. "Raven told me you were looking for me. Something about another lesson?" Belle broke out of her stare and nodded awkwardly. "I'm sorry, I was in-"
"Meetings. Yeah, she told me. It's fine," she responded. They looked at each other again in a comfortable silence. His hand was still touching the side of her face, so he drew a circle on her skin with his thumb before brushing a curl off her forehead and pulled his hand away.
"I'm afraid I won't be around for any lessons tomorrow. Erik, Moira, and I are going to Russia. We're following a lead on Shaw." At the mention of the name, Belle jolted to sit up straight and one of Belle's hands reached out to grab Charles's upper arm while the other clawed at the bed sheets.
"What? Are you going after him already? We're not ready to face him and his men. We're not..." Charles let out a soft hushing sound as he took her hands in his and gave them a reassuring squeeze, his eyes staring into hers once more.
"It's just Intel. We're not going after him just yet. And I know you're not ready. None of you are." A shadow passed across his face, a look of disappointment evident as he licked his lips and let his stare waiver. "I've...been neglecting my duty in that respect...I haven't trained with any of you, save for our lesson yesterday. I just don't want to give the government a reason to use you. If they see progress, this will become a government task force."
"And you don't want that," she whispered sadly. Charles shook his head and stared at their hands, which were still clasped together. Belle gave his hands a squeeze before slowly pulling hers away and lying back down on the bed. He made a mental note that she was wearing his robe and gave her a warm smile before leaning over to press his lips right where her hairline met her forehead and leave a lingering kiss. "Goodnight, love," she felt him whisper as she felt him move his hand to her temple and send beautiful images into her mind, easing her into a world of unconscious fantasy as her reality blurred and her last thoughts were calm nothingness and his warm familiar scent.
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